FORAGING TEACHER

Biography

François Couplan, ethnobotanist, Ph.D., has been teaching the uses of plants since 1975 in North America and in Europe. To his scientific training he adds a deep personal experience of living with nature, which he explored on all continents.

He has written some eighty books, including an Encyclopédie des plantes comestibles de l’Europe in three volumes (in French), the Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America (in English), plus works in German, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese.

He has researched the diet of our Palaeolithic forefathers at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and works with several top chefs in Europe, in the U.S. and in Japan.

He regularly gives workshops, seminars and lectures in various parts of the world and has set up a school in Lyon (France) with a three-year curriculum to give students an in-depth understanding of the ageless relationship between people and plants. He also teaches survival courses on his land in the mountains of southern France (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence).

François Couplan lives in Switzerland, but spends much of his time travelling around the world looking for new plants to find and new people to learn from. He stops frequently in Togo (Africa) and Japan, where he is currently setting up local plant centres.